Since 1994, I have been photographing the landscape and inhabitants of the Southside, a Latino neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I began by making portraits of teenagers playing handball and basketball in the schoolyards. I was drawn to the mixture of arrogance and vulnerability in their faces, the naiveté and feigned maturity of their posturing.
As the project continued, my work became more intimate and narrative in nature. I documented the neighborhood’s social life: in clubs, places of worship, and the homes of residents I’d gotten to know well. I photographed them celebrating their culture at parties and religious feasts and on Puerto Rican Day.
Most recently, I set out to photograph the landscape of the community, particularly the memorials to slain friends and relatives, which are painted and erected in the street where the violence occurred. Paradoxically, this violence exists amidst the environment of family, religion, and cultural pride.
I want my subjects to appear as they wish to be seen, without any visual bias on my part — because our identity is, in part, determined by who we want to be.
— Vincent Cianni
The photographs from this selection are available as a PDF only. Click here to download.
